1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recommended program search device and a recommended program search method, for searching for a recommended program which is determined to be a user's favorite program from scheduled broadcast programs, using viewing history information on programs that have been viewed in the past by the user, i.e., the viewer of broadcast programs.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is proposed a search device which stores viewing history information on broadcast programs viewed by a viewer (user) in a small capacity memory, receives program information including additional information indicative of the contents of broadcast programs, stores the received program information in the memory, and searches for a user's favorite program from program information corresponding to scheduled broadcast programs to be broadcast in the future. Refer to Japanese Patent Application Kokai (Laid-Open) Publication No. 2005-86324 (Patent Document 1), for example.
The aforementioned search device, however, has a problem that the device can detect a channel meeting user's preference but the device cannot identify a program meeting user's preference because of a limitation that the determination of the user's favorite program must be made with use of the small capacity memory.
In the aforementioned search device, when a time point (view start time) of starting viewing a program in last week is different from a time point of starting viewing the same program in this week, the program cannot be registered as a user's favorite program. However, in particular, when the device power is turned on or a channel is changed, it is rare for the view start time in last week to coincide with the view start time in this week, and therefore the viewing history information cannot be desirably stored disadvantageously.
Further, the aforementioned search device is arranged to increment the number of viewing times by one when the channel selected by the user in this week coincides with the channel so far selected in every week, and to decrement the number of viewing times by one when the channel selected by the user in this week is different from the channel so far selected in every week. Accordingly, when the user successively views the same program at the same time point in every week, a numeric value indicating the number of viewing times becomes large. However, when the contents of a program so far broadcast at the same time point in every week was remarkably modified after the time of change of the scheduled broadcast program, for example, the numeric value indicative of the number of viewing times cannot be properly decremented. This results in the fact that it takes a long time for the search device to become capable of making a proper judgment for the user's favorite program from when the scheduled broadcast programs are changed.